DV from A to Z
by kehwie
Summary: Pretty much what the title would suggest. An alphabet's worth of Daniel/Vala love. Written for the Month of Love on LiveJournal.


**D/V from A to Z**

A/N: After turning out a multi-chapter adventure for my first Month of Love entry, I ran out of creative mojo. ;) Parts of this are silly, I know. Parts I really like. Some could be fleshed out into a story later, perhaps. At any rate, it is what is. I hope you enjoy!

**A is for Ancient.**

The Ancients always fascinated Daniel. The more he studied, the more he wanted to study. Going to Atlantis, to the city of the Ancients, was a dream come true.

Then a crazy pirate hijacked his spaceship, and he never made it to Atlantis.

Okay, temporary setback, nothing more. The delay allowed for the defeat of the System Lords and the Replicators. That was a good thing. Then things settled down, and he was once again Atlantis-bound.

That same space pirate showed up. He wanted to ignore her, but she had _an Ancient treasure map._ Then she slapped the kor mak bracelets on, and he no longer had a choice. And once again he missed his chance to go to Atlantis. He was stuck with her.

He used to be fascinated by the Ancients. Now he's grateful to them.

**B is for Ba'al.**

Daniel despised all Goa'uld, but there were some he hated more than others. Apophis and Amaunet of course topped his list, having cost him his wife. Anubis wasn't too far behind. And then there was Ba'al.

Daniel had been in a foul mood for days surrounding Ba'al's extraction. Ba'al had tortured Jack. And Ba'al had some sort of sick obsession with Vala—Qetesh, as he insisted on calling her. It made Daniel's blood boil. Jack always acted flippant in Ba'al's presence, right up to the very end. Daniel knew how hard that must be to pull off. He had always thought Vala reacted much the same, tossing off uncaring remarks. But when she walked into that gate room with that ridiculous gun, he began to reevaluate. He glanced at her a few times during the interminable ceremony; he could see her cringing every so often. It just made him hate Ba'al all the more.

**C is for Catherine Langford.**

Catherine had gotten Daniel into the Stargate program. Without her, he would still be a lonely lunatic on the fringes of society, an outcast no one believed in. Now he was a respected archaeologist and linguist at a government facility, a seasoned traveler of the galaxy, and husband to his second beautiful alien.

He owed Catherine quite a lot.

**D is for darling.**

When Vala had first started calling him darling, Daniel had hated it. She threw it around so casually; it was obvious the term meant nothing to her. And he really, really hated being messed with. Somewhere along the way it changed. She began using it for real. And now her husky voice calling him darling is one of the sexiest sounds he knows.

**E is for Eilidh**

Eilidh meant "torch," "sun," or "radiant one." Vala fell in love with the name almost as soon as she learned she was pregnant. Daniel protested. "No one will ever be able to spell or pronounce it properly!" he huffed.

Vala glared. "It's a beautiful name, Daniel. And people just better _learn_ how to say it and spell it right!"

And then little Eilidh Jackson entered the world, and suddenly she _was_ his sun. All further protest about the name died in his throat. Jack still called her Eyelid from time to time (although never in Vala's presence), and Cam still insisted on spelling it Aylee. But Eilidh was just as feisty as her mother; Daniel knew they wouldn't get away with it for very long.

**F is for fruitcake.**

Daniel called Vala a fruitcake the very first day he met her. He never dreamed that he'd end up looking back on that day with such fondness. Nor did he dream that he'd end up using what was once an insult as a term of endearment.

But he did. Just as Mitchell affectionately called Vala "princess," Daniel called her "fruitcake." Specifically, _his_ fruitcake. He didn't use it nearly as often as Vala used darling—he tended to use it for private, intimate moments. But it was a special, meaningful nickname that was wholly _theirs._

**G is for gradual.**

Once their daughter asked if he believed in love at first sight. He answered that he didn't know; he only knew it had never happened to him. Falling in love with Vala had been a long, slow process. Certainly, he'd been attracted to her and intrigued by her from the beginning, but there had been a healthy dollop of dislike and mistrust thrown in as well. He found himself wanting to kill her every five minutes or so. Then the people of Ver Eger _did_ kill her, and he had been stunned by the force of his grief. Later, as he'd gotten to know her, he'd begun to empathize with her. Then he'd started to admire her. Then she stunned everyone by destroying the Supergate, and he realized how much he'd grown accustomed to her presence. He was rather taken aback by how much he missed her.

When she returned, he could see how hard she was trying to change, how much she wanted approval. That impressed him. Slowly they learned to be friends. When the Trust kidnapped her, he nearly lost his mind with worry. He still couldn't pinpoint the exact moment he fell in love with her; he couldn't even pinpoint the moment when he realized that he was. He jokingly told her once that she'd gotten a hold of him "a molecule at a time."

It might not be as dramatic of a story as "love at first sight," but he thought it was better.

**H is for hand puppets.**

Daniel might not have fallen in love with Vala on the _Prometheus_, but he still remembered how cute he thought she was when she pretended to talk with her hands like puppets. She still did it from time to time, and he always found her utterly irresistible when she did so. It was enough to make him give in to whatever she wanted when she did it. Hopefully she hadn't figured that out yet.

**I is for idiom.**

Even after years on Earth, Vala mangled her idioms. All the time. He thought it was the most adorable thing he'd ever heard.

**J is for Jack.**

Jack had teased him mercilessly about Vala from Day 1. Somehow the general had gotten a hold of the security footage from the _Prometheus_, and Daniel didn't think he'd _ever_ stop going on about that fight. Or the kiss. Then Jack _met_ Vala, and he found her constant innuendo and her ability to raise Daniel's ire hilarious. Naturally Jack egged her on. As the two got to know each other better, Daniel found himself on the receiving end of a Jack/Vala _team._

Daniel knew Jack liked Vala. But only once did Jack stop ribbing him long enough to say something serious. It was as they stood by the altar, waiting for her to walk down the aisle. Jack looked at Daniel solemnly. "You picked a good one, Danny. I'm happy for ya."

**K is for kor mak bracelets.**

Sometimes Daniel thought there was still some sort of bond leftover from those blasted bracelets. It was in the way they could read each other's thoughts, the way they could communicate with just a glance, the way they always knew if the other was in danger and needed rescuing.

It hadn't been easy, and the jeweler had looked at him like he was off his rocker. But Daniel had managed to get wedding rings made for them that resembled the kor mak bracelets. Vala had recognized it right away, and the smile that lit her face made it all worthwhile. "You're _really _stuck with me now," she declared.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

**L is for "Life is too short." **

They saw the truth of those words every day in their jobs. Daniel had experienced it viscerally in the deaths of his parents and Sha're. The mere thought of losing Vala or Eilidh was almost enough to incapacitate him. No matter how much time he had with them, he knew he would always want more.

On the other hand, it was knowing just how short life was that prompted him to take a chance on Vala in the first place. It was realizing that there was no guarantee for tomorrow so he'd better grab for happiness today that caused him to treasure every minute with his girls. Perhaps in one sense "life is too short" was a threat, an omen of doom. But on the other hand, it helped him ground himself in the moment and cherish all he had been given.

**M is for memento.**

One didn't become an archaeologist without an appreciation for relics of the past. Daniel loved trying to discover the significance of various items he uncovered.

But he didn't have a whole lot of souvenirs from his own personal past. A few photographs, a collection of journals, some random ticket stubs, and a couple of trinkets. When Vala first had the opportunity to prowl through his private stuff, she'd come away disappointed. "It's no fun to snoop in your room, Daniel! You don't have anything worth snooping _for_!"

But then she found the hair clip. Her flower hair clip from that dinner at Il Fiore Blanco all those years ago, tucked away in one of Daniel's drawers. She turned to look at him in wonder, and he blushed and stammered like a schoolboy.

And then he finally admitted it had been a date all along.

**N is for Nalini. And Nicholas. **

It had taken years for Vala to open up to Daniel about her mother. She still didn't like to talk about her much; it seemed the memories were just too painful. Daniel had suggested using her mother's name for Eilidh's middle name, but Vala refused. She did start reminiscing more after Eilidh was born though, and Daniel listened to the stories with rapt attention.

But he couldn't fault her for not talking about her mother more. It wasn't like he talked much about his parents or Nick. Some topics were just off-limits.

**O is for Ori. And the Orici. **

Perhaps he started falling in love with Vala on P8X-412, watching her try to keep the people of that world from falling to the Ori. She worked to exhaustion with the healing device, trying to overcome the plague, then she attempted to gun down the Prior. He'd never allowed himself to see it before then, but Vala cared so much more than she'd ever let on.

And then there was Adria. She fought harder than anyone to stop the Orici, and she always insisted that Adria wasn't her daughter, that she felt nothing. But he could see it in her eyes. He still kicked himself sometimes for saying that he should have killed Adria when he had the chance on that Ori ship. It was true, of course. But he sometimes thought it was that comment that had shut Vala down, had convinced her that she could never let her true feelings for Adria show. Nothing he said after that ever seemed to sink in.

He knew Vala still mourned Adria though. Three times a year, Vala slipped off alone for a day. She never told him where she went, and she never allowed him to come with her. It had taken years to figure out what the dates corresponded to—Adria's birth, her ascension, and her final defeat. He hurt for his wife, but he never could get her to open up and let him share her grief over her lost daughter.

**P is for pillow fights.**

Daniel still remembered waking up in the infirmary and having Carolyn fill him in on just exactly what Vala had done with those stupid kor mak bracelets. He remembered the moment when his ire needed an outlet so desperately that he had hurled the pillow in her direction. But even recovering from illness, Vala's reflexes were sharp and she easily deflected the missile.

The first time they slept together started with a pillow fight. Vala was bored, and a bored Vala was always dangerous. So Daniel had taken her to his apartment to eat dinner and watch movies, more to get her off-base than anything. But they had a good time and soon were laughing and joking through the second movie.

He no longer recalled what prompted her to whack him with one of his couch cushions. But suddenly they were in a full-on pillow fight.

And then they weren't fighting at all.

**Q is for Qetesh.**

Daniel would love it if Qetesh were no longer a part of Vala's life, but he wasn't naïve enough to think that would ever be the case. The nightmares came less frequently now than they used to, but they still came. Vala never screamed or cried, but she woke up cold and shaking, and he knew.

Damn Goa'uld bitch. Good thing the snake was already dead. Daniel would really have liked the opportunity to kill her himself.

**R is for running.**

She still felt tempted to run from time to time, he knew. But he also knew that she'd never do it. She had made that choice long ago, to stop running. To make a home. And even though she felt restless from time to time, she knew it was worth it. And he knew he had nothing to fear. She wasn't going anywhere. She had chosen to stop running and to come home, and home was where she'd stay.

**S is for Sha're.**

To some, it might sound strange that Daniel's first wife was an integral part of his love story with his second. But loving and then losing Sha're was such a defining event in his life. It was what shaped him into the man he is now. And that's the man Vala loves.

**T is for Teal'c.**

It's uncanny how Teal'c just "gets" Vala sometimes—in ways Daniel knows he never will. He isn't jealous of that fact, just grateful. Vala needs somewhere to turn when she's dealing with certain aspects of her past that however hard he tries, Daniel will never fully understand. He's beyond grateful that Teal'c is there for those times.

She'll still occasionally pester the Jaffa for information about the _Odyssey_, but Daniel doesn't see the need anymore. Fifty years on that ship? Yeah, sooner or later they ended up together. No doubt about it in his mind.

**U is for unlikely.**

He knew they were quite possibly the most unlikely pairing ever...but he also knew that it was why they worked.

**V is for vixen.**

There were times when "vixen" was a far more appropriate nickname for Vala than fruitcake. Daniel tended to use vixen when Vala was being deliberately provocative in a place where he couldn't do a damn thing to satisfy his desire. Hence, "vixen" was usually said on a gasp in inappropriate places. Such as in his office. Or on off-world missions. Or in meetings. Or...

**W is for Wendy.**

Wendy Mitchell was a force of nature. And somewhere along the way, she seemed to have decided that Vala needed a mother figure. If Daniel thought he was escaping the whole mother-in-law thing by marrying Vala, he was sorely mistaken. Actually a traditional set of in-laws might have been easier. He was certain he had more in-laws than any man out there. Wendy. Frank. General Landry. Hell, even Jack. Vala was the most stubbornly independent woman in six galaxies, but somehow everyone wanted to protect _her._

**X is for xenophile. And xenolith.**

The first time Vala called him a xenophile, Daniel's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Where did you even learn that?" he practically squeaked. She simply laughed. But she started using it more and more often when she wanted to tease him about his obsession with other peoples, cultures, and customs. He put up with it. It wasn't like she was wrong, after all.

The first time she called one of his "rocks" a xenolith, he told her she needed to stop reading the unabridged dictionary during her down time.

They both knew he didn't mean it.

**Y is for yammering.**

He loved her. He really did. But she could still annoy the hell out of him faster than anyone on the planet. She especially loved to yammer on endlessly when he was trying to work. He finally learned how to tell when it's safe to tune her out and when he'd better sit up and listen. And boy, did he get it wrong a whole lot before he figured it out. Got himself in all sorts of trouble.

**Z is for zat'nik'tel. **

Daniel thought they might be the only couple in existence who have zatted each other more than once—and not by accident. The first times were of course on the day they met; there was a whole host of extenuating circumstances that day. Actually the other times had all had extenuating circumstances too; things like that just happened in jobs like theirs.


End file.
